Early Sunsets over Monroeville
by Respect the fallen
Summary: Mikey Way just moved to a new school and he's a little lost. He meets a friend named Lacie, and crushes on a guy named Frank. There's only 2 problems. Lacie is going out with Mikey's brother, Gerard, and Frank likes Gerard.
1. The first day

1

Mikey

I began adding generous amounts of hair gel to my hair. My fingers, tearing through, and brushing up. I let out a profane groan as I continued to comb through my knotted hair with my fingers.

I see my brother, Gerard, standing in the doorway.

"When did you dye your hair black?" He said

I then realized that I did, and then laughed a little at my own unawareness.

"Last night." I said, expressionless

"You sure you want to look like Edward Cullen for your first day of high school?" Gerard joked

I made a face at my laughing brother

"You sure you want to look like an abused puppy on the first day of school?" I teased back at him "I'll call PETA if you want."

"Go give yourself the 'shittiest comeback ever award'."

I was rummaging through Gerard's drawers when I spotted Gerard's old black eyeliner. I pulled it out quickly.

"You mind if I use this?" I asked

"Whatever." He shrugged "don't blame me if you get beat up though."

I carefully began lining my eyes with the thick pencil.

I stood in my room, brushing out my ragged suit, which was a hand-me-down from Gerard.

The suit hung off my skinny frame like a jacket off a coat rack. I smiled slightly at how dumb I looked when I flailed my arms around like I used to in third grade. I began to tie my tie.

One of the few things our school DOES allow us to choose is our ties. I had a plain white tie, that I drew Pokemon and ATARI characters all over. I laughed again at how dumb I looked.

My sleeves were frayed, so I tried to roll them up. I looked at my arm in the mirror and my smile faded. I saw scars. Just a reminder of how awful my years in middle school were. I suddenly got really depressed.

I exhaled and walked over to Gerard's car which is parked out in our driveway. He honked his horn at me, so loud I cover my ears. I climbed into the red car. The shade of the car reminded me of Gerard's hair, which I'm still pretty sure he's going to get in trouble for having.

I kicked my feet up on the dashboard of Gerard's car. I looked at him. He didn't know anything I was going through. He had it all. Looks, Friends, Money and Girls.

I didn't seem to acquire any of Gerard's likable traits. I got the bipolar, the nearsightedness and over all the homosexuality.

Before I knew what was going on, Gerard's car had come to a halt. I opened the door and as I got out, I already was hearing whispering about me.

"I see Gerard has already told everybody about his gay little brother…" I mumbled to myself, continuing to walk.

"HEY GAY-WAD!" I heard from behind me. I saw a tall, muscular figure standing behind me. clearly he was one of the jocks. "Don't go kissing any of the boys around campus, alright?"

Laughter was everywhere. I sighed and continued my walk of shame into the school.

I was inside soon. I found my locker, #168, and Threw my jacket inside. I saw a girl next to me at locker #169. She had dark brown hair with green tips.

"I see you scored on the locker number field."

She looked my way with a surprised look, which quickly turned into a smile

"Oh, yeah!" She had a higher, cheerful sounding voice "You're Mikey, right?"

"Yeah… How did you know?" I said, dreading the answer

"Gerard." All of my hope drained

"Oh."

"Don't worry… I still think you're pretty cool. I mean the music you listen is pretty cool. That makes you cool in my book. I have low standards.""

"What do you mean? I don't listen to that top 40 shit if that's what you mean" I responded, hoping to get out of the conversation.

"Ew. God no. The Smashing Pumpkins, Iron Maiden, Metalli-"

I cut her off

"Oh, thats good!" I seemed a bit too excited.

"If you want you can sit with us during lunch."

"That would be wonderful! I'm looking forward to it"

I began to walk off with my books in hand, super exited for lunch time.


	2. Friends

2

Mikey

It was lunch time, and I spotted the girl from earlier sitting at a table with another boy, and another girl.

The boy was noticeably cute. He had black hair and dark eyes. He had a tattoo on his neck of a scorpion. The other girl had light brown hair, brown eyes and was laying on one side of the table, with an Ipod in hand.

The girl from earlier spotted me and began snapping at the girl on the bench to move and make room for me. She quickly got up and moved her Ipod onto the table.

"Mikey!" She said "Sorry that I didn't introduce you to us earlier. I'm Miranda."

"Hi, Miranda."

"This is Lacie" She pointed at the other girl, who looked up at me briefly. I could tell she was blushing. "And this is Frank." The boy smiled and stared at me

"Wonderful to meet you!"

Miranda whispered to me "He's gay"

"MIRANDA!" Frank slapped the girl in the arm "Didn't I tell you that if you don't stop telling that to everyone I'll fucking kill you"

"Come at me." She hissed at Frank

I saw Lacie was avoiding me. I quickly poked her in the arm and asked her what she was listening to.

"Nirvana" She said very quietly

"That's cool. I like them too. I mean, I can't understand what he's saying, but they're good just the same." I tried to make conversation with her, as I noticed scars on her wrist.

She randomly got up out of the blue and ran off into the building without her backpack or Ipod. I knew it was because of me.

I yelled at her "HEY! YOU LEFT YOUR IPOD!" but she kept running. Away from me.

'Great going Mikey.' I thought to myself. I wanted to start over and be nice to everyone. But It's already the first day and I've ruined it.

I walked back to the table and grabbed my lunch.

"Don't mind her, she's antisocial."

I didn't say anything, just kept walking away.

'You're a bitch. You don't deserve these things'

I threw my lunch on the ground and stomped on it in a fit of rage. I decided I'd just go and eat in the science lab like I did in middle school.

I began to head up. Up the stairs. Ignoring all of the screams of 'HEY FAGGOT'

I slid the door to the science lab open when I saw her in there dramatically staring out the window as if it was one of those photography magazine covers.

"O-oh, sorry, I'll go…" I said, backing away

she stared at me with these absurdly shimmery eyes and signaled for me to stop. I knew I liked this girl, not in a like like way, but there was something about her that kept me wanting to try and make her happy.

"You can stay, if you want. I just don't really like people I guess."

"Hm? I thought they were your friends."

"I mean, they're amazing people, I really suggest you make friends with them and stop wasting your time on me. I'm a lost cause." she said, staring at the ground a little.

I walked across the room and nudged her shoulder

"Don't think like that. We're all worth it." I paused "Jesus, I must be sounding like a therapist or something." Lacie and I both did a half-smile, as if on cue.

Then it came to me, why I cared about her so much. She reminded me of myself. I sort of wanted her to hook up with Gerard because he's had some really awful girlfriends in the past. I finally found someone worthy.

"I guess I haven't formally introduced myself. I'm Lacie, but I think I have one or two nicknames at this school. Some shit about me being fat and some shit about me being a prostitute I believe like hoesack or something."

"You're not a prostitute, you're beautiful. I mean that in a friendly way, I'm gay." I told her, trying not to sound awkward

"Unfortunately, just about everybody knows."

"Yes, I've noticed…" I sighed "I'm serious, you should meet my brother, he'd be lucky to have a girl like you."

Lacie laughed. Kind of. More like that heavy exhale people do when something is funny, but not that funny.

"Gerard is way too far up the social totem pole here. I'm about three feet underground of the totem pole, at the moment."

"People always say that. He's a great guy, really, he's just kind of annoying. And loud. And he makes really sassy-ish remarks." I smiled at her "Here, come to my house after school. It'll be fun. I mean, as long as you like 70's horror movies"

"Hell yeah I like 70's horror movies! Should I take the bus or..?"

"Nah, Gee is 18 so he can drive us."

"Alrighty. I just realized we've been here for like 10 minutes and we're about to be late for our next class."

"What's your next class?" I asked, tilting my head slightly.

"Chem lab. You?"

"Same." I remarked "I guess that high school isn't that bad…"

"You're just really easy to talk to. Just you wait Mikey Way, just you wait."

I loved how she called me by my full name. Maybe that could be our friend code or something, calling each other by our full names.

Lacie burst out into a random eruption of speech after about a minute of awkward silence.

"Chem lab is across campus!" She spoke, at a normal-people tone, louder than her normal volume. "Here, follow me!"

She took off running out the door.


	3. Gerard

3

Gerard

I was waiting for Mikey to climb into my car, when two people climbed into the back seat of my car. Startled, I looked back, and to my relief I saw Mikey, but he was with another person. A girl?

They began giggling and arguing as to who would have to sit in the back and who would sit in the front. Mikey tried too hard to be a gentleman and ended up forcing the girl to sit up front. I still didn't know what was going on.

I finally forced the question out.

"So…" I said "Who is this?"

I looked back at Mikey who looked puzzled, as he always does, before realizing what he was being asked

"Gerard, this is Lacie. It's kind of a long story how we met, but she was pretty cool, so I invited her over to watch movies with us." He seemed completely casual.

"Michael James Way." I snapped at him "I thought you were-"

"NONONONONONONONO" Lacie and Mikey screamed a shower of 'no's in unison

"It's not like that." Mikey assured me "We're just friends."

I offered Lacie my hand

"My apologies." I said, shaking her hand "Gerard."

"Yeah, I know. It's hard not to know you." She spoke in a very quiet voice, and she kinda looked at the ground while speaking

"Well, be nice to my baby brother. He's been through a lot." Mikey kept on signalling me to shut the fuck up (we have a special signal for that), so I just smiled and gave him a noogie like I did when I was young.

"I couldn't be mean to anyone if I tried."

"Wait, some shitbag sophomores from school call a girl named Lacie slutbag"

She pointed back at Mikey "Yeah, that was the nickname."

"Long story short in middle school I was kind of big, and some perverts offered me money if in return they could like slap my ass or feel my tits or something awful like that. I never let them do that, but the nickname has stuck since then for some reason."

"You're very pretty, don't let them get to you." I said to her, and I noticed her blush a little

"T-thank you…" She said very quietly.

I handed her a piece of paper with my phone number on it.

"If you ever, EVER, need to talk, please give me a call."

Soon we arrived at our house.

"Welcome to our residential plains" Mikey said, acting like a total dork, as always

Lacie chuckled at that a little

"Mikey is a total loser, but like, in the good way." I told her "He's not like any of those other jock douches at our school. He's a great guy."

"BITCH I MIGHT BE!" He responded to me. Mikey always sounds more like a white girl then a black gangster whenever he tries.

We spent that afternoon talking throughout the whole movie Poltergeist and listening to music. Lacie was an amazing person, I could tell. Mikey deserves a friend like her, finally.

Lacie was about to leave, but I urged her to stay and sleep over that night. I knew how creepy I must have sounded, but I really wanted her to stay. She declined my offer, which made me sad, but I got to drive her home, which was nice.

"So… How are you?" I asked, trying too hard to make conversation.

"Good, good. You?"

"I'm fabulous." I said, flashing her my dorky smile.

I lit a cigarette and offered her one. She turned it down.

"Lovely evening, isn't it?" I spit out. Don't blame me, it was the only thing I could think of!

"Yeah… It sure is, isn't it." She said, sighing and looking out the window, her eyes reflecting the sunlight.

That was when I knew I wanted her. She was perfect in her own way. She was, well, Lacie.

I took a left turn at her neighbourhood, when I knew I should have taken a right.

"My house is that way, Gerard." She pointed out

"Yeah, I know. There's a park this way isn't there? I kind of want to go and see it at night."

Lacie shrugged

"Why not?"

Soon we arrived at the park. I pulled two lawn chairs and a cooler full of alcohol and I began walking over to the cliff that everyone at school called 'make out point'. Of course we weren't going to make out, it just has a beautiful view of Monroeville. The sun began to set and I looked at my watch. It was only 5:30 PM.

"Early Sunsets over Monroeville." She said, sighing and staring off of the cliff from a dangerously close distance.

I went and grabbed both of her sides gently, making sure she didn't fall.

"Don't let go, Gerard." She joked

"I'll never let go." I responded.

For the billionth time that night I looked into her eyes and knew she was the one. I leaned over and kissed her. Not one of those dramatic movie kisses where they open their mouths to the size of a dinner plate and start abusing each others tongues, more just one of those mom kisses.

We spent the whole night drinking cheap Pinot and telling stories about our childhood until we fell asleep in the grass in the park. When I woke up in the morning I knew I would never forget watching the early sunset over Monroeville that evening with Lacie.


	4. Frank wands the D

4

Frank

Mikey came and sat with us for lunch again, but this time, he and Lacie were much more friendly with each other. She didn't seem like herself.

They explained to me some incident in the Science Lab and how they watched Poltergeist (I wish he would have invited me, that is one of my favorite movies) and how Gerard drove her home that evening. Lacie's face was a bit off. I wasn't sure what that meant. Maybe Gerard wasn't very nice to her or called her by that horrible nickname.

I like Gerard. He's nice and really, really, really cute. I want him in my bed.

"So, um, Mikey. How's your brother?" I asked him, wanting desperately to know every detail about everything he does

"I think he's good. He never came home last night so I had to take the bus. I saw him in the hall today and he said that he was drinking after he dropped Lacie off and he fell asleep on someone's lawn." Mikey had a disappointed look on his face. "I'm scared for him, Frank. He has a problem."

"He'll be okay. It always get better, and he'll find something that he likes even more than drinking. I promise. Ever since I took up guitar I never had time for smoking." I told him that because I couldn't stand seeing anyone sad. That last part is the truth, but I'm worried about Gerard too. He's got so much coming for him so he throws it all away.

"He seemed pretty stable last night, Mikey Way. He's just going through a rough patch, that's all. We all have these moments, just some patches are harder to get through than others." Lacie said, hugging him at the end

"Wait…" I said "You two?!"

they both erupted in 'no's like I heard them from Gerard's car yesterday. I wasn't watching them or anything. Well, I was watching Gerard, but I don't think he saw me.

"You didn't know that I'm gay?" Mikey asked me

"What? No!" I screamed at him. Mikey looked like a sad puppy after I said that. "I mean- Twins!"

Mikey smiled. He had Gerard's smile. It was so cute.

"Y-yeah… Twins!" He shouted back to me.

"Hey, Mikey, what do you say you, Gerard and me go see a movie tonight?" I asked him. I had to see Gerard

"Actually, Lacie, Gerard and I were going to go see a new movie that came out today. What was it called?" Mikey asked Lacie

"Scream." She responded

"Would it be alright if Frank came?" Mikey stared back at me "I mean, if you want to come"

"I'm fine with it as long as Frankie is."

Lacie had always called me Frankie because she knew it got on my nerves

"Sure why not. Also, please don't call me Frankie, Mikey. Lacie just does that because she met my grandma and she saw how much I loathed it when she called me Frankie, so naturally she started calling me that because she's a little bitch."

Lacie smiled

"I've noticed that she's a little bitch." Mikey said

"Shut up before I give you some stupid nickname."

That night we got to the theater and Gerard sat in between Lacie and Mikey. Shit, now if I 'casually' put my arm around the chair I would be flirting with Mikey and the 12-year old next to me.

Gerard hugged Lacie really tight throughout the movie, which made me want to cry. But I stayed calm, even though i kind of wanted to die. A million questions passed through my mind

Are they a thing?

Does he like her?

Is that where he was last night?

I decided to let the thoughts pass from my mind. They were just friends. They were just friends.

We were leaving the theater when the douchebag of the school, Brody, was leaving too. Lacie and Gerard were holding hands. But in a friendly way.

"Gerard Way? Is that you holding hands with the whore here?" Brody taunted

"Jeez, how many nicknames do they have for her?" Mikey asked Gerard

"Clearly a lot, judging by the fact that she doesn't talk much and she never did anything to you."

"Oh, Gerard, how much did you pay?"

"She's not a fucking prostitute, Brody. Now please get out of our way."

Brody then did something that nobody thought he would. He ripped Lacie's shirt off. Gerard removed his and quickly put it on Lacie. He then didn't hesitate to punch Brody in the face as hard as he could. He beat Brody to the ground, then took Lacie's hand and ran off, signalling for Mikey and me to follow him.

Gerard did the best thing that he could in the moment. But there was no time to think about that now, I was sitting next to Gerard, shirtless in a hot car. I examined his well-built chest and stomach. I told myself again that I wanted him in my bed. But this time the lust increased. Gerard was my drug, I wouldn't stop until I got some of him.

We all went back to Gerard's house, and sat on the couch while talking about everything and getting drunk. We got so drunk, in fact, that Mikey and I kissed on the couch, while Lacie and Gerard were doing god knows what in Gerard's bedroom.

I must say, Mikey was a good kisser. Maybe it runs in the family. I'm not giving up hope on Gerard. We were all drunk and that's what I'm sticking to.

The next morning I woke up in Mikey's bed with an awful hangover. I got up to go to the kitchen and get some aspirin, when I saw Gerard standing in the kitchen, shirtless in his boxers.

"Hey, Frank. I take it you want some aspirin?"

"You mind reader you" I joked back at him, rubbing my temples in hopes of dulling the hangover

He tossed me the bottle of aspirin. He was still shirtless.

Just then Lacie walked in. God dammit I was in the zone.

"Aspirin me, bitch." She uttered to me, holding out her hand

I gave her the bottle, while I downed 4 of the tablets. She grabbed two tablets and dry swallowed them.

"If you want I can make food." Lacie told Gerard

That morning we ate some slightly burnt pancakes and some eggs with salsa. All three of them enjoyed their eggs with salsa, which I couldn't understand. It's just like putting whipped cream on orange juice.


End file.
